Bailey's resume again questioned

State House candidate says he 'just made a mistake,' opponents are 'rehashing old stuff'

Republican state House candidate George Bailey just can't seem to get his educational record straight.

For years, his resume has been overstated with an assertion that he graduated from high school at Richmond Academy, a misstatement he let stand as recently as last week in an interview with The Post and Courier.

Bailey, who is running to take back Dorchester County's District 97 seat he lost to Rep. Patsy Knight in 2006, admitted in a deposition more than two years ago that he never graduated from high school.

He supplied, however, a copy of his Statehouse biography that lists "g. Richmond Academy" for an article that was published Thursday. Bailey served in the House from 1984 to 2000 and from 2002 to 2006.

"I am not a perfect person; I made mistakes. We all do," Bailey said when asked Monday about the matter. "I will not get into mudslinging. I try to run a positive campaign, but maybe I will have to go back and look at my opponent's past.

"I just made a mistake. They are rehashing old stuff. This is getting down to what we call the dirt-level," he said.

Bailey had attended several high schools before dropping out of Richmond Academy in Augusta during his senior year around 1955 after his father died of cancer, according to his testimony in an unrelated lawsuit.

Bogus claims on Bailey's resume are nothing new.

He conceded in 2004 that his biography for 20 years inaccurately stated that he was a graduate of Washington and Lee University in Virginia and a Marine Corps veteran.

Instead, Bailey admitted that he attended Lee Institute School of Real Estate in Massachusetts and that he was a Marine Corps reservist during high school.

At that time, Bailey said the inaccuracies were an oversight that he'd tried for years to have corrected. He did have those corrected on his Statehouse bio, but did not change his claim to have graduated from Richmond Academy.

Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Fowler said Monday she believes Knight will be able to defeat Bailey on Nov. 4, especially after the back-and-forth about his resume. Knight narrowly won the election in 2006 with 51 percent of the vote.

"Given his record on his resume, I don't think anybody will be surprised that there is another inaccuracy there," Fowler said. "We expect to hold on to that seat. This is just another reason for us to expect that.

"I think the people in that House district want someone they can believe when they speak and someone they can believe in," she said.

Knight said she can serve the people in Dorchester County better than her opponent.

"I think this is the pattern he set of deception for years and years," she said. "It's sad to know people will elect people like this to serve. They certainly deserve better, and that's what I have done and will continue to do."

Reach Yvonne Wenger at 803-799-9051 or ywenger@postandcourier.com.

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